On Being a Grown-Up

I always get the thoughtful–sometimes challenging–questions from my kids while driving. Typically it’s when we have a long drive or a lot of traffic, which means I can’t escape the ones I am not quite prepared to answer. Asking me how babies come out of a mommy’s body while driving on the highway many years ago is one that comes to mind (My response: “That’s a great question to ask daddy at dinner tonight!”).

Monkey, my youngest, is the one who most often likes to spend drive time having discussions on everything from childbirth to our favorite letter of the alphabet. Recently he posed this question:

“Mom, is it fun being a grown-up?”

What quickly became clear in our discussion was my son’s concern about life as an adult being terrible because adults have to work and pay for everything. It surprised me because Monkey’s two dads and I are all deeply passionate about what we do professionally, and love our work. Additionally, the kids see how great it is that I own my own company, allowing me the flexibility to never miss a baseball game, see the kids off to school daily, and not work their school holidays.

What I realized in digging deeper into the discussion is that hating a job and complaining about bills is so prevalent in society that our kids are attuned to this. Quitting a job is at the top of the list of what people would do if they hit the lottery, for example. Too often aspects of life are described as a grind rather than a fun adventure.

In speaking with someone this morning, we were discussing the details of his weekend and mine. After hearing I had a date with my husband, a relaxing Saturday, enjoyed football, and worked a ½ day Sunday, he focused on the latter part of my weekend: working. “Oh, that’s too bad,” he stated sympathetically. I found myself in a position not unfamiliar to me: explaining that I love my work.

Have I always been excited to rise each morning to start a new day?

No, of course not.

What we each have as adults is the freedom to make choices. We can better our lives through making changes in relationships (romantic or platonic), careers, financial situations, and many more aspects of life. We all have the ability to make being a grown-up fun.

Along with these abilities to make big life choices for myself as an adult, here are just a few more grown-up benefits I enjoy:

Great post, Kelly! It’s great to see Naked Girl back in action. I love no one telling me what to do or what to eat…I love that I write as much as I can but I don’t like that many people don’t ‘get it’.lisa thomson-The Great Escape… recently posted..50 Things I’ve Learned

The fact we have so many choices as adults should lead to a view that being a grown-up is great, but doesn’t always. I have to say, even in the midst of the divorce process when I hit so many lows, I still liked my freedom and found joy. Albeit, sometimes fleeting joy.

I have to remind myself to enjoy the simpler things & not get completely bogged down by life.

I think, somewhere along the way, we forget why we looked forward to being adults in the first place. We get so caught up in the whole rat-race of working to pay bills, stave off debt & be productive members of society that we end up seeing that as the primary focus of adulthood.

There are a lot of people out there who genuinely don’t want to be some clerical [insert job title here] but see it as the only choice to avoid being without food, shelter, etc. That kind of life can get really empty & depressing really fast.Vinny C recently posted..Conversations With Mrs C – Right In The Eye!

I agree with you completely, Vinny. It’s tough when we are in a job or relationship that isn’t right for us, but hopefully we can be mindful of everything else in our lives so that what might not be perfect in the moment doesn’t completely define us. I needed to think this way as I was navigating my divorce.